Friday, December 3, 2010

Strawberry-Banana Muffins

When you're a stay at home mom of a toddler, you end up baking a lot of muffins. Well, at least I do. It's a way to break up the day and give the little guy something fun to do with Mama. He loves to push his chair up and help me stir the ingredients. Here's a picture of him in action....

Usually I'm trying to use up old bananas, but today I realized our uber-large carton of Costco strawberries were going bad already. There's something about being at Costco for too long that makes their ginormous container suddenly seem average size. Until you get it home and you realize it's the size of your first apartment's bathroom. Anyway, I digress.

So, off I went to search for a new muffin recipe for the two of us and came across a basic and healthy one. We both loved it. I'm thinking this would be a good candidate for a little sweet streusel topping next time. Mmmmm.

It calls for whole wheat flour, which I know not everyone likes for their baked goods. I use it because Adam is none the wiser right now. I use a white whole wheat flour that uses a lighter whole wheat that has a more delicate flavor. Don't get me wrong, it ain't no white flour. But it's a big improvement on the standard whole wheat. If you're not keen on the whole wheat, you can always use 1/2 whole wheat/white flour. Or just use all white flour. I won't judge.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 12 large muffin cups, or line with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil, brown sugar, vanilla and bananas. Combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; Stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Stir in the strawberries until evenly distributed. Spoon batter into muffin cups until completely filled.

Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when pressed lightly. Cool before removing from the muffin tins.